Syrian Conflict Grows on Two Fronts

Turkey Forces Damascus-Bound Jet Suspected of Carrying Arms to Land; U.S. Confirms Military Team on Jordan Border

Syria accused Turkey of air piracy after Turkey forced a Syrian civilian airliner to land in Ankara. Meanwhile, the U.S. sent troops to Jordan's border with Syria. WSJ's Joe Parkinson gives us the latest from Istanbul. Photo: AP

By

Julian E. Barnes in Washington,

Stephen Fidler in Brussels and

Joe Parkinson in Istanbul

Updated Oct. 11, 2012 7:09 a.m. ET

Turkey escalated its conflict with Damascus on Wednesday by forcing down a Syrian passenger plane it suspected was delivering arms to the regime from Moscow, while the U.S. disclosed that it has stationed a team of military personnel along Jordan's border with Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Turkish officials confirmed that the plane, a civilian aircraft, was being searched on the runway at the capital's Esenboga Airport and said Turkey had banned its own civilian aircraft from Syrian airspace effective immediately amid fears of mounting insecurity.

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A Syrian plane sits at Ankara's Esenboga Airport on Wednesday after Turkish jets forced it to land.
European Pressphoto Agency

"We are determined to control weapons transfers to a regime that carries out such brutal massacres against civilians. It is unacceptable that such a transfer is made using our airspace," Mr. Davutoglu said on Turkish television, adding, "Today, we received information that this plane was carrying cargo of a nature that could not possibly be in compliance with the rules of civil aviation."

Hours later, Mr. Davutoglu said the plane would be allowed to leave, but its cargo had been confiscated, the Associated Press reported.

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Turkish television channels offered mixed reports of what the airliner's cargo contained. NTV reported that Turkish officials had seized "material deemed to be parts of missiles," while CNN Turk reported the detection of "military communications devices." Neither report could be independently confirmed.

The news came as Turkey's top military commander warned that Ankara would launch a tougher response if Syrian shells continued to land on Turkish territory.

"We responded but if it continues we will respond with greater force," state television channel TRT quoted Chief of General Staff Necdet Ozel as saying during a visit to the southern border town of Akcakale, where Syrian shells killed five Turkish civilians a week ago.

Turkish news channels reported that 35 passengers and two crew members were on the plane, an Airbus A320. It wasn't immediately clear whether the passengers were Syrian nationals and whether they were civilians. Turkish television showed images of the plane on the runway and carried testimony of witnesses who said they saw two Turkish F-16 jets accompanying the plane when it landed.

Neither Damascus nor Moscow had an immediate comment.

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A wounded Syrian man is helped after crossing into Turkey over the Orontes River.
Reuters

U.S. defense officials said about 150 U.S. military personnel have been stationed in Jordan to help draft plans to secure Syria's weapons of mass destruction in the event of the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime and to assist Amman with refugee flows.

The team began arriving about six months ago, military officials said. The planning effort with Jordan on securing Syria's chemical-weapons sites, should the Syrian president fall, began even earlier, officials said.

Despite the U.S. military presence, officials dismissed suggestions of a deepening involvement in the 19-month-old conflict.

"These guys are not door-kickers or shooters," a military official said. "They are planners."

Some Republicans, including Mitt Romney, have criticized the Obama administration for its handling of the Syrian crisis, although the GOP presidential nominee hasn't said he would directly provide arms or lethal aid to the rebels.

At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said the military deployment wasn't a signal of a change in the U.S. position, adding the administration would continue to provide only nonlethal aid.

"It's not an escalation," he said. "It's us working with a partner as part of our contingency planning to deal with the impacts of Assad's brutality."

Syria, which blames Arab and Western countries for financing and arming the antigovernment insurgency, characterized reports of the U.S. presence on Jordan's border as evidence of "scandalous American involvement in the crisis."

Damascus accused the Obama administration of carrying out a "secret agenda…to destroy Syria and destabilize its security and stability."

Rebel fighters, meanwhile, have criticized the U.S. in particular for not providing them military aid, and Turkey for not taking unilateral action against its neighbor.

The deployment of the 150 military personnel was reported Wednesday by the New York Times. The U.S. work with the Jordanians on plans to secure Syria was first reported by The Wall Street Journal in March.

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After a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers in Brussels, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the troops had been deployed to help Amman manage the impact from the Syria conflict. He said the U.S. is helping Jordan deal with refugees and working with Jordanian authorities to monitor chemical- and biological-weapons sites in Syria.

Mr. Panetta, who said the U.S. is also working with Turkey to monitor weapons sites, is seeking to make sure security of the locations is maintained. "We want to make sure that these [biological] and chemical weapons don't fall into the wrong hands," he said, adding that the U.S. was also providing nonlethal support to the Syrian opposition and seeking to provide humanitarian aid.

Lt. Col. Wesley Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, said the U.S. has provided a variety of humanitarian assistance, including medical kits and water tanks to help Jordan deal with the flow of refugees. But he said the U.S. and Jordan were planning for a range of scenarios, including regarding the security of Syria's chemical-weapons stockpile.

Jordan has a long history of dealing with refugees from the West Bank, Iraq and other areas. Some experts said the presence of U.S. military planners shows efforts to step up preparations for Mr. Assad's fall.

"It is a plausible assessment that this is about preparations for total-regime-collapse scenarios," said Joseph Holliday, an expert on the Syrian conflict at the Institute for the Study of War, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. "It would make sense for us to do that in concert with the Jordanians."

Jordan has been more eager to work with the U.S. on planning efforts, said military officials and defense experts—more so than Turkey, which has been more reticent to conduct intensive planning or coordination with Washington.

Jordanian officials declined to comment. U.S. officials have said Amman had requested the U.S. not publicly discuss the size of the military deployment.

U.S. officials said they believe the Jordanian government would be unwilling to enter Syria as long as the Assad regime remains in power.

Mr. Holliday said because of Jordan's hesitancy to get involved in the Syria conflict, it was unlikely that the deployment of U.S. planners would lead to a greater U.S. involvement in Syria. "I don't see this deployment dragging us into the conflict, for the simple reason that Jordanians aren't eager at all," Mr. Holliday said.

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